Most good writing is rewriting. Revising can be fun: notice the satisfaction you get when the fuzzy becomes clear, the limp becomes crisp. (See the entries on "voice" and "tense" in the Handbook.) Most of us can see what's wrong with other people's writing more easily than we can our own. Reading our own work we often confuse what we wanted to say with what we've actually said. The reviser needs to cast a cold readerly eye on his or her work.
Here is a paragraph that was supposed to be about Falstaff's dramatic function. (In your essay you'll write about Hal.) It is desperately in need of revision, from the level of spelling and punctuation to vocabulary to organization to the quality of the ideas and their adequate expression. You're the editor: in the box below the paragraph, cut, add, rearrange, correct, rewrite in any way, as extensively as you like. [Note for Mac users: you may experience difficulty getting the lines to wrap properly. Try using hard returns (hit "Enter" at the end of each line) to solve the problem.] For real revision, tinkering isn't enough; sometimes you have to re-vision from start to finish. Use the blanks and buttons below the box to e-mail your revision to your preceptor.
The lifestyle of Falstaff in William Shakespeare's play Henry the Fourth is a fat old man who likes to drink alot. Hal is also the Prince of Wales but his relationship with his father is that of a playboy who does not like to work alot. Hal hung out with Falstaff and stealing things and drinking is one of the things they did. I think Falstaff was disgusting but it is important to note that he says alot of things that are true even if those things arent honorable. For instance, Falstaff says that honor is a scutcheon, which is true. Hotspur is the honorable one but he got killed.